Case study: Ikea's 25 hour cook-off

Looking to prove the durability of its kitchens, Ikea staged a marathon cook-off in Singapore and Malaysia.

The aim was to convince people that Ikea kitchens are built to last, and to spread the word about their 25-year guarantee.

“Since the kitchen is where tempers often rise and relationships are tested, we challenged people to test theirs in an Ikea kitchen, at the Ikea 25-hour Cook-off: a 25-hour marathon of grueling kitchen challenges, designed to push the strongest relationships, and our kitchens to the limit,” said a Leo Burnett spokesperson. The agency was behind Ikea’s cook-off.

The prize was an Ikea kitchen.

To participate in their respective countries, Singaporeans and Malaysians submitted online videos of their kitchen relationships and explained why they deserved an Ikea kitchen, for themselves or for someone else. To help encourage and stir creativity of their video entries, a group on YouTube was engaged to create and upload a video of their own that provoked helpful ideas. The responses came pouring in from couples, parents, children and best friends. The best stories were selected to battle it out at the stores, which for the first time ever, remained opened for 25 straight hours.

A series of challenges were designed to test key relationship attributes of the 36 finalist pairs, such as teamwork, communication, patience and trust. Teams cooked up favourite recipes, made mash potato look like art and sorted through beans in the wee hours of the night.

After 25 hours of kitchen tasks aimed at impressing the event’s panel of celebrity judges, the last couples standing were rewarded with their prize.

Images here:

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Results

This was the longest an Ikea store has stayed open. Also, Ikea registered a year-to-date sales increase of 47% in Singapore and 28% in Malaysia, and drove in 64% more store visitors in Singapore and 39% more in Malaysia.

The online buzz for IKEA in both countries over the three month period was the highest ever, with a 10% increase in Facebook fans to 480,000, and 180,000 new stories generated. The contest microsite saw a surge of over 150,000 visitors and 450,000 page views.

Online searches for Ikea kitchens increased by 12% as compared to the previous year’s campaign, said Leo Burnett.